Posted on 09/11/2009 4:17:39 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Caster Semenya, woman who rocked athletics world, 'is hermaphrodite'
Rick Broadbent and Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg
Sex tests carried out on Caster Semenya, the world 800 metres champion, show that she is a hermaphrodite, a source close to the case claimed last night.
If the allegation is backed up by the official results, the South African may find herself stripped of her gold medal and banned from racing. The IAAF, the world governing body, refused to comment on the claim last night, but earlier in the day its general secretary, Pierre Weiss, said: “It is clear that she is a woman but maybe not 100 per cent.”
Semenya was believed to have gone into hiding last night and it is understood she is unlikely to appear in her first race since winning the gold last month. Her coach, Michael Seme, said he was now uncertain whether Semenya would compete at the 4,000 metres women’s event at the South African national cross-country championships in Pretoria tomorrow.
Leonard Chuene, the president of Athletics South Africa (ASA), which has been vocal in its criticism of the IAAF, said: “We cannot get involved in gossip of this sort. Our people will speak to Caster and ensure that she puts these rumours from her mind.”
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Well, you could tell by looking at “her” that she wasn’t just a woman.
A homosexual’s dream!
This one is for the IAAF to decide. Semenya had to know about this herself but are they supposed to deny her into both men’s and women’s sports?
Its unfortunate all around.
What an incredibly sexist, totally accurate thing to say! ;)
BTW, I hope you have flame-proof shorts on, cuz’ there’s some wo-mern’s on FreeRepublic who will have nothing to do with the idea of men being superior in any facet of life...
I feel sorry for her that nature has played a cruel joke on her, but she could not have been unaware that her remarkable appearance would raise questions and eventually bring about an investigation. My goodness, you could see her “package” when she was running—how could that not invite questions about her qualifications? If one has an extraordinary problem, one doesn’t maintain privacy about it by doing something that draws international attention to it.
It really is a fraud to compete against people you’re overqualified to compete against, There is where my sympathy for this young person ends. It’s not any different than if I entered my small and rather Arab-looking Thoroughbred in a race against Arabs and creamed them. There would naturally be some questions raised and I would be exposed and humiliated.
I don't have an answer for this situation, nor the wisdom, but I hope the commissioners will be sensitive in dealing with it.
But no, I don't know where her place would be in a competition should be. Seems she's got a natural advantage over the standard competitor, but not an illegal/illigitimate one.
I wouldn't want to be on the panel trying to figure this one out.
Nope, not a liberal moment. I see a woman who has what could be categorized as a congenital birth defect. She dealt with it, chose her place in society and found that she had a gift as a result of it. Beyond that, well, I hope she can work something out. I don't see it as anything beyond that.
Just last weekend I was talking to a teacher and that there was a person who was having problems and it was determined that the person was a hermaphrodite. They had never known, they had female genetalia but genetically they were both male and female.
I don’t even know if it was true but it sounded plausible. This wouldn’t have been diagnosed without genetic testing.
I better look up "hermaphrodite". I thought she only had partial "franks and beans".
Well, I hope she works out something.
I suppose its possible. You might not have a clue until reaching puberty when no menstral cycle starts. Without testing one might assume they were simply sterile.
I don’t believe anybody is barred from “mens sports”, except by capability.
This is the fundamental problem with women’s sports. They are specifically regulated to ensure that the best athletes are not allowed to compete, through regulations.
These regulations must be strong enough to ensure that the excluded class cannot circumvent them, and in the process you might well exclude a few people who otherwise might be considered part of the class.
in other words, NOT A WOMAN
Take the medal away
In the racing world that’s the rub; she “assumed” the role of a woman.
Bob Beckel might refer to her as a “trogladyte”.
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